American Medical Biographies/Ingalls, William (1769–1851)
Ingalls, William (1769–1851)
According to S. D. Gross, William Ingalls of Boston was the first in this country to amputate at the shoulder joint for gunshot injury. This was in 1813 while he was professor of anatomy and surgery in Brown University (1811–1823). Dr. Ingalls was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, May 3, 1769. His ancestor, Edmund of Lynn, came from Lincolnshire, England, in 1629. William graduated A. B. at Harvard in 1790, M. B. in 1794 and M. D. in 1801. Brown gave him her honorary M. D. in 1813.
Dr. Ingalls suggested operation for strabismus as early as 1813, according to Hubbell's development of ophthalmology.
He was the author of "Observationes ad abscessum bursalem pertinentes" 1803; "Essay on the Ganglionary System of Nerves in the Cranium," 1832; "On Scarlatina," 1837; "Lecture on Phrenology," 1839; "Treatise on Malignant Fever," 1847, his chief work.
He married Lucy Myrick Ridgeway and their son was William Ingalls (1813–1903), a visiting surgeon at the Boston City Hospital and an obstetrician of some note who published in 1876, "Synopsis of Private Obstetrical Practice," covering a period of forty-two years of professional experience.
William Ingalls, senior, died at Wrentham, Mass., September 8, 1851.